POINTS TO PONDER! 04/04/26

A couple of months ago I was listening to a Messianic Jewish Rebbi explain what Passover meant to Jews and Christians. He pointed out that he was mystified as to why the KJV used “Easter” to describe the Passover. Even though I’ve read the Bible numerous times over the years, I did not notice this translation. But sure enough, there it was in Acts 12:4 [KJV]. When I looked at the NKJV and NIV, I found that they chose the word “Passover” rather than “Easter.” I read in one place that the KJV used “Easter” to translate the Greek word pascha to differentiate the pagan holiday King Herod was observing from the Jewish Passover. The text indicates that the Passover days were already over, prompting the translators to use a term that reflects a later pagan festival. I also read that the KJV translators used “Easter” based on earlier translations, such as Tyndale, who used Martin Luther’s German Bible that translated it as “Ostern” in his New Testament English translation.

But that still doesn’t explain why they substituted the word Easter for the Greek pascha (Passover). So, I looked up the word “easter” to see its origin and perhaps find the answer. I found out that the most popular theory is that the name comes from Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility. According to the 8th-century monk and historian Bede, the month of April was originally called Eostre- month in her honor. As Christianity spread, the name of the month was eventually adopted to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. So, we can see why resurrection day has been secularized with the Easter Parade, Easter Bunny, Easter Egg Hunt, wearing an Easter Bonnet, and Easter Baskets, all of which celebrate springtime but have nothing to do with Jesus’s resurrection. I can understand why the KJV translators wanted to separate our Lord’s resurrection from the Jewish Passover, even though Jesus is considered the Passover Lamb. Yet the Passover Lamb was never resurrected, so that makes our Lord’s rising from the dead a special day.

That’s why we, as Christians, must hold fast to Sunrise Services and messages about the importance and necessity of the Christ’s resurrection. The Apostle Paul explained it very well: For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ must still be dead. And if He is still dead, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is empty, worthless, hopeless; and we apostles are all liars because we have said that God raised the Christ (the Messiah) from the grave, and of course that isn’t true if the dead do not come back to life again. If they don’t, then, the Christ is still dead, and you are very foolish to keep on trusting God to save you, and you are still under condemnation for your sins; in that case, all Christians who have died are lost! And if being a Christian is of value to us only now in this life, we are the most miserable of creatures. (1 Corinthians 15:13-19).